Question 1-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

“They have many typical features and are often set on rugged rural terrain with a central plot revolving around conflict between good vs evil or rich vs poor. Some typical elements in them include guns and gunfights- often on horseback, shootouts, horses, human massacres, open landscapes and the characters wear distinctive western clothing (denim, jeans, boots, cowboy hats etc). The heroes are generally local lawmen, cowboys ranchers or army officers that are both courageous, tough and moral and independent. They stand alone against danger (often outlaws) and display physical skills such as horse-handling and gun-play.”   (From a previous post)

We tried to use what we’d found out from our research to make our western opening conform to the conventions of others. We tried to incorporate some of them into our opening like the chase and horses.

 Doing the research and having the list of conventions to follow gave us some initial ideas which we then developed during filming. Some aspects changed dramatically like the way the horse scene was filmed as during filming we discovered that it would be harder than we first thought. As a result of this our final product differs in many ways to our initial storyboard.  I found out that there are three main types of westerns; Classic (shooting Indians, back hat bad guys Vs white hat good guys), Revisionist (different representation of white cowboys, fighting each other etc) and Post Modern (looking at change in woman’s role, made with audiences’ knowledge of previous westerns in mind). I had thought ours would fit into the classic sub-genre as its good Vs bad however when thinking about it further I realised it fits better into the Post Modern sub-genre as its made in modern times and the role of women is shown differently with the woman being the character stealing the money instead of the man who would have typically done the bad deed in an earlier form of western.

Although we used, developed and conformed to some we also challenged some of the conventions. When watching our finished piece we realised that we had broken the 180⁰ rule. We did think about re-filming this however it was brought to our attention that we were not the only ones to have broken this rule. John ford also broke it many times in one of the first western films Stagecoach (1939)

As a result of this it meant that we had accidentally challenged a generic convention of filming yet also inadvertently conformed to a convention of one of the first westerns.

Other than this we do not particularly challenge the conventions of westerns. One difference between our opening and other westerns is that in the openings we watched it was clear from the beginning who the antagonists are where as in ours at first the consumer would assume that the woman was the antagonist as she is the one stealing the money. However I think that by the end of the opening it has been made clear that she is not and that (because of the last shot) it is the two men that are.

Finally we chose the name Annex to fit with the western genre s it is the western word for 'To Steal' , we had originaly thought of calling it something like 'Stealing' but this didn't fit with the western feel but we felt that by using the western word for it it fitted perfectly with the genre and our work.

I think that were it to be developed into a whole film following our planned narrative structure it would have been clear to the audience from early on who the antagonist are (considering that our opening is only 2 minutes long).

Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening represents different social groups through both the mise-en-scene and sound.

From the first scene we can see that the film is a western featuring stereotypical cowboys. We get this impression because of the mise-en-scene and sound. Added to this the addition of the horses-thought this part was hard to film this helped to make the genre clear as horses are one of the generic conventions of westerns. As a result of this when the audience see the horses the social group that they think of is cowboys.

Stereotypical cowboys                                                    Our cowboys

The setting for the first shot is an old shed at Nikki’s-we removed most of the stuff in it but we left some of the furniture in to make it appear as if it’s lived in.

 

We got the non-diegetic sound from Music for Videos . We found it on youtube by searching for copyright free western music. We then emailed the company asking for permission to use it stressing that it was solely for educational purposes and for no commercial gain.

 Link to the music we used/where we found it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TksWEiWZU_k

I think this music helps convey the social groups in the film. This is as the music has definite connotations of cowboys and combined with the mise-en-scene of the first scene this clearly represents the social group to the audience and makes them aware from early on what the film is about.

Also the more specific social group of antagonists is represented though it is not apparent until the end of the opening that it is in fact the two men that are the antagonists.

Question 3-What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

The institutions that produced and distributed the westerns that we had looked at earlier on were small companies developing these types of films for niche markets including; National Green Pictures (Monte Walsh), First Look Pictures (The Proposition) and Touchscreen Pictures, Beacon, Communications (Open Range).

I looked specifically at the distribution of John Ford’s Stagecoach as I had looked at this earlier when seeing how our work was similar when it comes to breaking the 180° rule. Stagecoach was first released through United Artists, an American film studio originally set up by some of Hollywood’s leading member in 1919. After 7 years the distribution rights ran out and it was left to Walter Wanger, the film’s producer. Since that a variety of independent companies owned it, 20^th Century Fox later owned it and produced a remake and now it is owned by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with sales and distribution being handled by Warner Bros. Pictures.

I then looked at the IMDB website at the top 10 western films and noted them down along with their main distributers (as they’ve changed over time) here’s what I found:

1) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) United Artists, MGM home entertainment, Warner home video, Sony home entertainment and 20^th Century Fox.

2) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Paramount pictures/home video/entertainment, Chapel Distribution.

3) The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) Warner Bros./Picture/Film, Warner Home Video.

4) Unforgiven (1992) Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. , Argentina Video Home

5) The Wind (1928) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor, MGM/UA Home Entertainment

6) For a Few Dollars More (1965) United Artists, MGM Home Entertainment, 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment

7) The Gold Rush (1925) Fox Video, Continental Home Video, Allied Artists, Warner Home Video

8) High Noon (1952) United Artists, Republic Pictures Home Videos, Paramount Home Entertainment

9) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment, CBS/Fox, Encore

10) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment/Film Corporation, Fox Video

The number one western according to the IMDB is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

whose main distributers were large, mainstream, American companies, the top ten are not much different and from looking at this I can see that Western films are more likely to be distributed by large mainstream companies like:

20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros., United Artists, MGM Home Entertainment or Paramount Pictures. As they seem to be among the most popular of the companies for the top ten westerns.This is not what i'd expected i'd thought they would be smaller companies as it is a nieche audience that westrens are aimed at.  However the company distributing it would depend on the country it was being distributed in, for example if it were in the UK it may be a British company instead like Allied Artists, similarly if it were in a country like Finland (FS film Oy) or Sweden (Svensk Filmindustri (SF)).

Question 4-Who would be the target audience for your media product?

At first we assumed that our target audience for a western would be middle aged men as they are who we stereotypically view as the target audience. The results of the first question in our questionnaire: “Are you a fan of westerns?” are as follows:

Resulting in only 60% saying yes, with the minority that said yes being either male of middle aged showing that the stereotypical views that we hold are true. However from talking to friends (both boys and girls) I discovered that it depends on the context and situation in which the film is being played.  For example some were saying that if they were to get in one evening or after being out at the weekend, had nothing else to do and a western was on TV they may watch it-making them an audience though not our target one. Though they said they would only watch it if:

~        Someone was already watching it.

~        They were tired and just wanted to rest on the sofa, so not minding what was on TV

~        To please a family member that was watching it

~        Out of curiosity/if nothing else was on

~        To see the fighting (boys response)

I also found out that boys were more likely to watch one than girls. This may be because of some of the conventions of westerns (fights, chases, shoot-outs)

As these are all things that stereotypically appeal to boys. Though this would not be our intended audience they are an additional cross-over audience.

The intended audience still remains to be middle aged men (even after finding this out). I think that this may be a slightly restricting audience as westerns don’t seem to be overly popular in society today but I think that there is a niche audience that it would appeal to.

Had our film been released in the first half of the 20^th century the audience would have been completely different and a lot broader. This is as westerns were one of the earliest genres in film dating as far back as Edwin S Porters “The Great Train Robbery” (1903). At the time of release westerns attracted a wider audience from across a range of social groups that now may not necessarily seen to be interested in them. According to the American Film Institute (www.fathom.com/course/10701053/session3.html) “Audiences identified with the desire to have a dangerous-but-secure lifestyle, and were captivated by the central conflict between civilization and savagery.” I think that some people still long for this type of lifestyle as it is only natural however instead of watching films people are more likely to identify with things through books, music or they fulfil their desires through modern technology such as video games which create an alternative virtual reality in which people can loose themselves.

Question 5-How did you attract/address your audience?

We attempted to both attract and address the audience in many ways. Firstly we opened with a long pan of a room followed by some extreme close-up shots of hands.

This made the opening a bit mysterious as it didn’t give much away and the audience were kept in the dark regarding what was going on. The intention of this was to make the audience want to know what to watch more to find out what happens next and what the first shots were about-so attracting and engaging them. We also made sure that it contained action by featuring the chase; the main motive behind featuring this in our opening was that it was a generic convention of westerns so hopefully attracting the audience as they want to find out the reason behind it and what happens next. Added to this opening with action in the first minute of a film gives the impression that it will be an “action-packed film” hopefully attracting an audience and drawing the consumer in.

We attempted to address the audience by choosing a subject that people could relate to (stealing money). Most people can associate with needing money at one point or another and so they can empathise with one of the main characters in the film. It may also allow people o put themselves in her shoes and think what they would do. Furthermore the ‘over-the-head horse shots’ allows the consumer to see what the character would allowing them to relate further to the character. This was an attempt to address them as it allows them to feel part of the film.

I asked some people in my target audience (both the intended and accidental one) to watch my opening so that I could record their results and feedback.

 

From this video i can see that it was possitive feedback and the audience seemed to be enjoying it and wanted to watch more. It is because of this i feel that i achieved my aim in attracting and addressing the audience.

Question 6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

I think I have learnt an awful lot about filming from this project. Before starting I thought that my knowledge of the technology was at a reasonable level but from doing this I have realised how much I’ve learnt. I haven’t just learnt about the technology though-also the practicalities of filming and how things are more difficult than they often appear to be.

For one of the first shots of the feet running we had thought that we would put the camera on a skateboard as the dolley was unavailable however we soon discovered that this was not possible. We them tried running alongside but that didn’t work either so we had to zoom in and use the tripod and pan round following the feet. The main problem was with the horse shots. We had initially planned to just have the two people riding off on the horse but we couldn’t have both people on the horse so we then decided on having just one person however we had to do this in an arena so was hard to film and make it look like it fitted the genre. Added to this it made no sense that there was only one of the two people on the horse and they had a riding helmet on as they said it was illegal to ride without one. This also didn’t fit the genre so we had to change it. We considered many things: putting them on a car and driving it down a field, get them to stand in a car through the sunroof and drive, and putting then in a shopping trolley and rolling that down a hill however we had to rule all these out because of being unsafe and unpractical. We ended up filming close ups of the hooves by driving alongside it on a quad bike whilst someone was riding it, the over the head shots by Nikki riding it and filming at the same time and the shots of the people by getting two friends to agree to carry them on their shoulders. This was still tricky to do particularly as it was raining and we had limited time before the light faded. We held an umbrella over the camera whilst filming to prevent rain on the lens and just shot as much as we could.

 

Because some of the scenes had been filmed at different times in the day and in different conditions we had to change the contrast and darken some so that it flowed well and looked consistent. Before starting this I would have had no idea how to do this but after a few trials we got it right.

<- darkened version

 

Another problem that we encountered was getting the sound right. Wind interference was a problem but we couldn’t just cut the sound completely as it wouldn’t have felt right. We ended up fading the music in and out over some of the wind to cover it and with some shots (the zoomed in feet, horses and shouting) we had to film the sound separately and line it up with the clips. We had to make sure we did it accurately though as it was hard to get the sound of the footsteps to match up with the feet touching the ground, it took a while but otherwise it wouldn’t have looked right. With the horse shots at the end we cut, copied and pasted certain clips over again repeating some to make it longer, we had to paste sound from different shots in too. At the end of it we used shots where the horse was not going as fast to make it seen as though it was slowing down. We had to edit lots of it very precisely so that it looked right (for example we didn’t have a foot in the hooves shot or shoulders in the shot of the people ‘riding the horse’) and flowed.

<- we had to edit the feet out of it.

I also learnt how to import clips from an SD card, convert them to clips to be used in final vut express and how to use a youtub converter.

Question 7-Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it in the progression to the full task?

At first I didn’t think that my filming was too bad before my full task however when looking back at previous footage I had filmed for my preliminary task I realized that I’ve improved a lot. I’ve learnt about shot lengths/types, camera angle and in particular framing. I think the framing has improved significantly from the preliminary to full task as in the full task I was far more conscious of how the people looked and were positioned on the camera and making sure that it looked right.

In this screen shot from our preliminary task we can see that the bottom of the persons feet are cut out and it would have looked better if we had framed it differently to make them more central in the shot.  Where as in the shot below from our main task we can see that the hand is framed centrally in the shot.

I’ve also made progress concerning Final Cut Pro. This is as in my final task I’ve had to do more complicated editing involving changing the contrast and brightness as well as cutting it more accurately to make it flow better.

I think that added to this my imagination has been stretched and my approach to things has developed and changed drastically from before the preliminary task when I felt that we had do everything properly and literally. I have grown to understand film more and have realised how hard it is to film some things even if, at first glance I’d assumed they would be easy to film (like the horse scene). I also realised that there is no need to film everything literally and that film is all about trickery and suspending the audiences’ disbelief. I had worried that if I didn’t film it properly the audience would be able to tell that it wasn’t but by filming the horse scene and asking for feedback I have realised that this is not the case. The audience couldn’t tell that the actors weren’t actually on the horse and thought it looked realistic. They also thought that it is possibly more effective this way as it is slightly mysterious and feels like something is being hidden from the audience, building suspense.
From learning about suspending the audiences belief it has made me more aware of how things might be filmed in ‘real’ films and has made me question more whether it is what we think it is or just trickery.

Initial reaction

When i saw our finished film opening for the first time i was very pleased with it. I was surprised that we had managed to get it all edited in time and it looks like we pulled it off. When we first chose to do a western we had no idea that we had such a big task ahead of us. although we encountered many problems with the horse, weather, actors etc i think what we produced at the end was worth the trouble. I am very pleased with it and hope that all the hard work has paid off, the more i watch it the more little mistakes i see or ways it could be improved however i think I'm just picking at it and hopefully they go unnoticed by others. Though i can see room for improvement i think we did the best we could in the time given and, as it was said in class "a film is never finished only abandoned".

Sound and finishing editing

Today we finished editing our western opening. The company never emailed back to say we couldn't use the piece of music so, as it was from a music for education website and we aren't using it for commercial purposes we assumed that this meant we could use the piece. It took a while to edit all the sound and you can faintly hear a bit of wind in some areas but given the clips we had this was the best we could do. I am relieved that we have now finished.

Title

We had to come up with a title for the western opening. Th only idea that we had originally was 'Stealing' or something along the lines of theft or a chase however we couldnt come up with anything that sounded as though it fitted with a western. We visited a website that had a list of traditional western words and whilst scrolling through them discovered that the western word used instead of 'to steal' is 'annex'. We decided that this well fitted with the theme and narrative of the story as well as the genre (what with it being a western word). Hence this is now the title of our film. We added this and other titles : directed by Nikki Hackshall and Jess Moulsher, Music by ''Dreaming Guitars'' and the actors names. We added these titles as these are ones that featured in the westerns openings that we looked at initially.

Editing

Throughout this week we have been focusing on editing the film opening. The biggest problem we had was sorting out the brightness levels, this is as the shot of over the horses head was filmed at 2pm whereas the shots it was going alongside (of the people 'riding' and the hooves) were filmed at 5pm so they were darker. To rectify this problem we had to change the brightness settings, it took a while to get the right balance and it still looking realistic but we got there eventually. We also had to do this with the shot of the hand picking up the bag, this was harder as the darker we made it the less realistic the hand looked, but we reached a level inbetween that makes it look ok.

Finishing Filming

At the weekend Nikki filmed the last of our shots. It was the view over the horses head that we were going to cut an put with the shots of the people 'riding' the horse and the hooves. We couldn't film the shots of the 'evil men' due to the actors not being free so we had to change our storyboard to get rid of this. This completed all our filming and meant that this week we could focus on editing and sound. 

More Filming

This evening we managed to film more of our footage. We filmed a shot of Jane (the wife) closing a door and one of her and rob (the husband) on peoples shoulders running along to look like they were on horses. I was a bit worried about how this would all work out and one of the people that was meant to carry them pulled out so we had to find someone else at the last minute. However everyone co-operated well and was very helpful. We managed to get it done before it got dark. We had a slight problem in that it was rainy however it was only drizzle and this was solved by holding an umbrella over the camera so no rain got on the screen and by making the ''horses'' run on the path so they didnt slip in the mud. The two people carrying Jane and Rob (the ''horses'') were extreamly willing to help and do whatever we told them. This helped a great deal as they were able to jog along bouncing slightly so it looked like the actors were on a real horse. One of them (the ones carrying them) even made horse noises to ''try and get into his role''. It worked far better than i thought it woiuld, we were not able to get many takes as the ''horses' were getting worn out and the light was fading but i'm fairly confident we got all that we needed to. Here are some photos of us filming:

In action

 Rather wet looking actors and 'horses'

Filming with an umbrella to stop rain getting on the lens.

Editing

Today we continued to edit in class. We have now added some titles but still need to think of a name. we still havent heard back about the music. I am now more confident that we will get it all completed for the deadline-the other day i was a bit worried as we didnt have enough film but now that we have filmed more (especially the pan) it is longer and i think it is all coming together well.

Filming

 Last night we filmed more of our media. This time we filmed the pieces of the horse (hooves, tail and head). To do this we got someone to ride the horse whilst we drove alongside on a quad bike filming. I think it went well and turned out better than I'd expected. Though some of it was a bit bumpy i think we got enough footage to crop out the bad bits. Here are the story boards for the new shots we are adding:

 

Here is a picture of us filming the scenes:

 

Finding Music

Here's the full message that we sent.

Dear sir/madam,

I am a British student studying at a sixth form near Cambridge. I am currently studying Media Studies at AS level, as part of this we produce a 2 minute opening of a film. This work is not not used for commercial purpose purely educational. I am in the process of creating my film opening and have taken on the task of a western and was wondering if it would be possible to use a piece of your music to accompany it. It is the piece 'Desert wind' (dreaming guitars) that i am interested in using as it would fit well with my work. Please be assured that this is for no commercial gain what so ever and is simply to help with my studies. I look forward to your response.

Yours Faithfully,

Nicola Hackshall, Saffron Walden County High Schoolear sir/madam, 

Music

We have spent the last two lessons looking for copyright free music that we could use in our western. Finding some is proving to be a real problem, we have tried you tube and googleing it and so far haven't found anything. We did think that we should make some however western music normally has orchestral instruments or unusual instruments like banjos in it and it wouldn't be feasible for us to do this in the time that we have. We will have to continue our search in our next lesson.

Today we continued to edit the shots that we have. We encounter ye another small problem in that some of the shots are shaky or dont quite flow however we think we have managed to rectify this by cutting them. We have virtually finished editng the shots that we have so far but we still need to add titles. We are struggling to come up with a name for our film-this will be our target for tomorrows lesson along with either looking at where to place the titles in the opening or searching for some music.

Storyboarding extra scenes

Yesterday in lesson we talked about how to get around the problem of the horse shot. We did think we could put the actors in a trolley or sit them ontop of a car but we realised that this was not very safe or practical. In the end we decided that we will have 2 people carrying the 2 actors on their shoulders running along behind each other pretending to be riding a horse. THough this may still be quite tricky to film we will only need a few seconds of it that we can put in between clips of the horses hooves (to be filmed whislt someone is riding the horse and we are on a quad bike alongside filming) with the sound of the hooves over the top to make it appear realistic. We will need someone to ride the horse and 2 people to carry the actors, we have already sorted this out and they have agreed to help us. The only propblem that we may encounter is that we are having to do this one evening after school as the actors have other comitments at the weekend so we will need to be quick and efficient so that we get all the filming done before it gets dark. Given that we will not reach the location untill 4:15 and the light begins to fade at 5 it will give us roughly 50 minutes to film. To give us enough time (and because the horse is in a different location to the actors) we will film the horse one night and the actors another. We have already storyboarded the changes to our plot and are aiming to get this done next week so that we still have a week to finish editing. 

Reviewing previous students work

Yesterday we watched the work of previous media students. I found this interesting as well as helpful as it showed us how careful you have to be of factors such as wind and making sure they dont disturb the film. I particually noticed this as wild interferance was something that was a problem when we were filming, we have revisited our shots and edited the sound so that it is no longer such a big problem. It is still noticable at some points but we are hoping to fix this by reshooting some of it. Another thing that i noticed from watching previous students work was how important continuity is and keeping the camera steady when appropriate. We will bare this in mind whilst editing and filming the rest of our shots.

Editing

During lessons this week we have started to edit our shots. First we watched all the clips and then put them all into final cut pro. We then went through and selected the best version of each shot. After this we started cutting them and putting it all together, for some shots we had to take the filming from one shot and the sound from another as the sound was sometime disturbed by wind or other interfering factors. When reviewing our progress on friday we realised that we wont be able to use the shots of the wife (jane) riding the horse. This is because in the shots she is wearing a riding helmet, this would not fit with the western genre that we have chosen. The reason for her wearing a riding helmet was that she thought it was illegal (if not then still unsafe) to ride a horse without a helmet. This is something that we had not invisaged would be a problem as we hadnt thought of it whilst planning. As her wearing a helmet doesnt fit with our genre we will have to think of a way around showing the horse and re-shoot it. We could have close ups of the horses hooves, tail and head whilst running or crop the shot so we only see the middle of her and the horse. This is something we will have to think about and explore this week.  

Filming

On saturday we filmed our western opening. I feel that it all went to plan, there was a minor problem in that one of our original actors was ill however we managed to find someone else to fill their role. We found it slightly difficult to film the sceens with sound because of the distance the shots were being filmed from and because of the windy weather conditions. The filming also took less time than we expected, for this reason we didn't wholey stick to our initial time plan but it was useful to have it with us to use as a list to see what we had to do. I think it took less time because we were more efficient than we expected we would be, partly because it was cold and windy and our actors could wear coats as it wouldnt have fitted with their costume, so we filmed what we needed as quickly as possible and everyone cooperated and didnt mess around. Below are some photos of us filming. 
 

Questionnaire Results

On friday we analysed the results from our questionnaire. We interviewed 6 people and found that on a whole the results were mostly as we expected. This means that we dont need to change our narrative structure and story board. I think this is because we researched our genre beforehand so we knew what the generic conventions were and we conformed with them. 


Question 1

 

The majority of the people we asked weren't fans of westerns however as expected those that were were male or older. Even though not everyone I asked was a fan of this genre I hoped that by taking on board their views I could create a film opening that appealed to a wider audience.   

Question 2 and 3

The usual plots that people had recognised includes: good overcoming evil, action, guns, cowboys, theft, chases. These seem to be the general ideas that people had and they were the prefered plots. We will bare this in mind, this coincides with our initial narrative ideas so we wont need to change that. I think that the reason it fits with it is as we researched  the genre and generic conventions beforehand so had an idea of what to include.

Question 4 and 5

The stereotypical characters that the people surveyed thought featured in westerns are: Strong fit cowboys, good guys, evil guys/devious baddies, indians, horses. This also fits with my narrative as it (my narrative structure) features many of these c haracters. In our opening we have goodies (cowboys), badies and horses so covering 4 of the mentioned character types. For this reason i don't feel that we need to change our narrative structure as we include the majority of suggested characters. There weren't any characters that people thought were missing from westerns either.

Question 6

There were  several  ideas for the opening of westerns including:  a shoot out in a bar, a chase, horses, rolling landscapes but all of the people we asked said that the opening should include action. This fits with my opening as, though the opening  does not feature a shoot out at a bar, it does include action and this was the most popular response. For this reason i see no reason to change our narrative structure.

Props

Props	Supplied by
Bandanas	Nikki
Cowboy hats	Actor
Logs	Nikki
Blanket	Jess
Make up/Face Paint	Jess/Nikki
Horse	Nikki
Seating (blanket/cushion)	Jess
Bag	Jess
Skateboard	Jess
Rope	Jess
Sledge	Nikki
Umbrella	Nikki